Advanced Digital Targeting: Comparing the Reach and Engagement of Teen Tobacco Prevention Digital Campaigns Using Distinct Targeting Strategies

Background:  Digital targeting through social media and other online platforms has been shown to be an effective strategy when targeting teens. Research suggests that targeting teens in general may be less successful than targeting specific teen peer crowds (the macro-level connections between teens with similar interests and lifestyles across geographic areas). This study compares general versus peer-crowd-specific digital targeting for the ability to reach and engage those at highest risk of tobacco use.

Program background: : Targeting effectiveness was examined through youth engagement with the Facebook pages of four campaigns that promote anti-tobacco messages. “Ydouthink,” which targets a general teen population, was compared to three campaigns targeting specific teen peer crowds, including: Syke and Blacklist, which target alternative/rock youth and Down and Dirty (D&D), which targets rural, country youth. 

Evaluation Methods and Results: Quantitative measures of online engagement with each brand over the most recent six month period included: Facebook metrics of number of “Likes,” average daily engagement, and average daily reach. Both organic and paid engagement activity were analyzed for comparison. To assess the ability of these brands to reach youth at-risk for tobacco use, percentages of Facebook users both engaging with each brand and also having pro-tobacco Facebook activity were calculated. Dual engagement with the brands and pro-tobacco content was explored using keyword searches of major tobacco types and brands via Facebook. Descriptive analysis was performed to explore differences between general or advanced targeting strategies.  Overall, the longest running brand, Ydouthink campaign had the most Facebook “likes” (n=15,097), followed by D&D campaigns (n=13,925), Syke (n=12,474), and Blacklist (n=11,630). Despite D&D (n=16,275) and Ydouthink (n=16,102) having similar average daily reach on Facebook, D&D was more successful at engaging youth as demonstrated by the much higher rates of average daily engagement. D&D had the highest average daily engagement on Facebook (n=843), followed by Syke (n=270), Blacklist (n=184), and Ydouthink (n=167). Further, the peer crowd targeted brands appeared to be more successful in targeting youth also engaged with pro-tobacco on Facebook content. D&D had the highest percentage of users who were also engaged with pro-tobacco Facebook content (65.4%), followed by Syke (24.1%), Blacklist (24.1%), and Ydouthink (15.9%).

Conclusions:   This study suggests that peer crowd targeted anti-tobacco messages may be more effective in engaging youth who use or are at-risk for tobacco than campaigns focused on the overall teen population. This may be because targeted campaigns can post content that is more consistently interesting to a specific peer crowd, while the content of a generally targeted campaign is likely less specific and less interesting. In addition, looking at the raw numbers of youth engaged, this study suggests that despite having a smaller target audience, peer crowd-targeted campaigns may ultimately reach more teens than generally targeted campaigns. 

Implications for research and/or practice:  Future anti-tobacco campaigns should be tailored and targeted to specific teen peer crowds rather than the general teen population. By selecting a high-risk peer crowd, campaigns can reach more at-risk teens than if they are generally targeted.